hongvshookConfusable pair

Which to use

“hong” and “hook” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,462
“hong” frequency rank
#31,062
“hook” frequency rank
36524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hong hook
Definition Compagnie de marchands chinois à Canton, qui ont le privilège de commercer avec les Européens. Effet inverse du slice.

Where the eye mixes hong and hook

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hong
4 ch
hook

Visual trap between hong and hook

A purely visual mix-up. hong (^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃ɡ\) and hook (\uk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hong is recorded at frequency rank #5,462, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃ɡ\. hook is at rank #31,062, tagged as anoun, pronounced \uk\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 36524, this pair ranks #269,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hong vs hook

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hong": gn. Private to "hook": k.

"hong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • honghhong · hnog · hogn · hongg · honng · ohng
  • hookhhook · hok · hoko · hookk · ohok

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hong" for "hook" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃ɡ\ versus \uk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hong" vs "hook" - which ranks higher?
"hong" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,462 in our French list, against #31,062 for "hook". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "hong" and "hook" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hong" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hook" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #269,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hong" and "hook" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoax vs hook". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #269,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list